THE Group for Authors! discussion

When it comes to buying I ignore them completely.

I left my comment on your site, but generally I'm afraid of star ratings. Anonymous ones especially.

Concealing your light under a bushel may be commendable but why ignore the primary reason potential readers even consider your book for purchase? Newbie trad published and indie authors are virtually invisible to a person looking for a good read. No matter how hard you work at promotion, you're still an unknown quantity and probably always will be. If you've worked very hard and put out your book for consideration, is simply pointing out your book reviews and ratings to potential readers so egregious?

In a perfect world, perfect results. Back here on earth, it takes years to build up a brand, and the slings and arrows of anonymous, trolled ratings eventually start to hurt.

Dianne wrote: "Invite you to read my post on ratings and stars. Enjoy! "New Post. Are you ***** Stars?" http://ow.ly/nZOIN"

Re-posted from the blog my 0.02 cents

Of course there are hotel star ratings a s well which vary by company, country and company doing the rating. Hotel stars had basic requirements to get to a certain level like a lift between floors – in the UK, but that doesn’t mean the same in a different country.

As to books or movies, I look at IMDB for movies or Amazon, but I am far more interested in what the book or film is about rather than just a rating. As a new author I want reviews not just ratings. As to friends reviews, I have asked them not to review, I want the readers to review unbiased because I want their feedback, but the friends and relatives are entitled to their opinion as well. given the amount of family feuds it’s perfectly possible that a bad review is from a family member!

Finally, I can’t understand best seller list or box office hit lis, but a lot of people buy the latest Dan Brown, JKR or go and see the latest Bruce Willis regardless of the reviews. Marketing hype, paid adverts from the publishers and planted reviews are done by the producers, in cohort with the reviewers in the press. You can even pay companies to write glowing reviews for you supported by TV/Radio shows where the famous actor/author is interviewed about their life – really a two minute advert for their latest offering.

If the 20% free sample doesn't catch my attention, no amount of 5-star ratings will convince me to continue reading it.

If the 20% free sample does catch my attention, no amount of 1-star ratings will keep me from reading it.

I only worried about reviews until I got my first 10-15 on my first book. The majority were 4 and 5 stars and it validated that I am good at what I do. Now I could care less about reviews.

I agree with Travis. It could be 5 stars, but if I don't like the writing in the sample, I won't buy. Or if the price seems too high.

Dianne wrote: "Yes. I see some authors with debut novels in eBook form charging incredibly high prices and wonder what they're thinking!"

Pricing is a whole different topic. I am experimenting at the moment. As with reviews pricing I am sure impacts many readers decisions, but Amazon with Kindle also drives some price points. There is a minimum charge $2.99 US for the 70% royalty programme. Charging less than that drops the royalty to 35%. If you publish through KDP then you can only have 5 free days per quarter. If you make the work DRM free i.e. no copyright protection then I think you can have a permanent free price. By publishing through other sites you can force Amazon to price match.

I have seen some reviews linked to price - not worth it or too expensive. Also I have seen comments that refuse to buy .99c books (a common level) because they do not think the quality will be good enough, writing or publishing. In the end it's a buyers market to use the business term. A review is like an advert, the price point is what the market will set. The supply and demand curve will have different points for different authors.

As a final aside be aware that some publishers refuse to let e-books be sold for less than the hard copy. The author does not get a choice regardless of e-book sales or reviews.

I'm more interested about reviews from my friends/people I trust. 5-star/4.whatever-star reviews have me side-eyeing the book frequently, and a series of negative reviews can persuade me not to buy a book if I'm on the fence.

Since I get most of my books used, though, or from the library, I'm pretty willing to give everything a go at least once. Unless it's just hopelessly terrible.

I don't pay any attention to the aggregate score. I've moved to a system of only reading the comments on the 1 or 2 star reviews. If they seem to point to legitimate problems, I'll likely pass on the book, but sometimes I've found they sell the book to me, by complaining about something that I actually find appealing (ie. too much technical detail, or (gasp!) a gay theme). Ratings without a comment are simply noise.

I read the three-star reviews first. I'm often suspicious of both 1 and 5-star reviews and so concentrate on the middle. Those reviews, to me, seem to often be the most thoughtful and specific.

Adriaan wrote: "...Ratings without a comment are simply noise..."

+1, ratings (good or bad) without comments/reviews never impact my buying decisions. Particularly if book has very few ratings.

I do sympathize with readers who felt book deserved a one-star not wanting to waste still yet more of their time on it by writing a review. I just don't find the rating alone to be helpful for picking books.